It was successful, and I got out of it what I wanted to get out of it; some weight loss and another experience with getting into ketosis (but this time using exogenous ketones) and staying in ketosis. I learned about how to eat at restaurants and the differences in preparing keto food vs Paleo food. What I decided, through a lot of conversations with my wife along the way, is that we’re going to adapt to a combination Paleo-Keto diet.

We enjoy the cheeses. We enjoy sour cream and cream cheese, but we both are lactose intolerant and get bloated/puffy when we eat anything with lactose in it. Worse, I experience digestive distress and can guarantee a violent trip to the restroom within 30 minutes if I eat anything with too much lactose in it. So, that’s a limitation for us. Also, we don’t want to overdo cheeses; just to have the option of using them.

My wife prefers natural sweeteners like honey or agave. I agree that they taste better, but I don’t have the visceral negative reaction to the use of erythritol or other artificial sweeteners in food if used in moderation. We will likely stick to more natural sources of sweetness in small amounts, but making something with artificial sweeteners will be an option now (but again, we aren’t going to lean on it).

Root vegetables: carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, and even others like tomatoes and green peppers will remain in our quiver of available food items. On keto, these are frowned upon due to their carb count, but while Sherry and I have been living LCHF for the past two and a half years, I think our version of LCHF has been moderate. With that said, it’s also been wildly successful, so it can’t be all bad.

Otherwise, I will continue to eat our Paleo/keto foods. Or is it keto/Paleo? I think the latter follows more traditional convention of alphabetical order, but I digress. This keto/Paleo plan is a solid one, I think, and I will be documenting our discoveries and experiences, including good and bad and everything in between.

I think keto is still a great way to get into serious weight loss, and I did feel energized in the mornings and a mental clarity that I hope I don’t lose, but it is too restrictive for our active lifestyles that includes a lot of travel. We also enjoy eating new foods at the places we visit, and being in ketosis severely limits our ability to have a one-off meal here and there easily and without causing a lot of extra effort for us to get back into ketosis. Some would say that we’re being lazy or making too much out of it, but at this point, we’re convinced of the efficacy of the diet we’ve been on for the past two and a half years as evidenced through our combined 215 lbs of weight loss (150 lbs for me, 65 lbs for her).

One of the neat things about this journey has been finding what works and discovering what doesn’t (and discarding or limiting them). There is no one-size-fits-all diet for everyone. I can recommend a starting point for you, but it’s up to you to closely monitor and watch how your body responds to the different foods to adapt your diet to your body. That’s what Sherry and I did with keto/Paleo, and so far, we’re enjoying the benefits in our health and the flavors on the table.